NERDTree opens by default if opening a directory

Question

If I open a folder in vim like this:

$ mvim . # or vim .

NERDTree opens by default in full width:

How can I prevent this from happening and show default VIM welcome screen instead?

Answer 1

You are explicitly telling vim to start with a listing of the current directory, if you don't want that, just do $ vim.

Answer 2

Run vim to get the Welcome Screen.

If you open vim . you'll get a directory listing of the current working directory (Netrw or NERDTree Directory Listing).

NERDTree overrides the default file browser (netrw). To disable directory listing by NERDTree at startup, add let g:NERDTreeHijackNetrw=0 to your ".vimrc". This Option tells NERD tree whether to replace the netrw autocommands for exploring local directories. Run vim --noplugin . and you see an empty buffer.